My husband has been working away from home for the past year and is now being taxed on his per diem, however for the first portion of the year's stay, he was not. How does this work for filing?
Also, a major factor in all this is how to get the per diem NOT to show as income. Our daughter started college this fall and our adjusted gross income for last year made us look much better on paper than we actually are, hence she was not awarded the grants and scholorships we had expected her to receive.
Currently my husband pays just over $250.00 a week for motel and receives $75.00 per diem for days worked per week (either 4 or 5).
How do we get our adjusted gross income to reflect our actual expenses?
It hurts to know he's working out of town so that our daughter can go to college and yet we seem to be penalized for working hard. Our adjusted gross income last year was just under $75K.
Thanks for any help.

Per diem is intended to reimburse you for temporary (under one year) business expenses. Once the one year is up, the condition is NOT considered to be "temporary" in the eyes of the IRS, so the per diem is considered taxable compensation.